Australians should remain vigilant when it comes to preventing being scammed by increasingly sophisticated fraudulent tactics fueled by breaches. Services like AutoSettle which are designed to take advantage of innovations in digital Id and secure payments should be used in favour of traditional systems that are open to attack.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has expressed disappointment at another record year of complaints, after disputes reaching the ombudsman service rose a further 9 per cent to more than 105,000 in 2023-24. There were 105,454 complaints in 2023-24. This followed an unprecedented 34 per cent jump in complaints a year earlier.
“While we haven’t seen the scale of increase we experienced a year ago, these record numbers are still too high.”
“We are disappointed we haven’t seen a reduction. Our view is that firms could be resolving more complaints themselves, or preventing them in the first place. We continue to take steps to be able to keep up with the increasing demand for our service, but it’s in everyone’s interests that rising complaints are tackled at the source.”
Chief Ombudsman David Locke
Scam-related complaints rose 81 per cent to 10,951 in 2023-24, averaging 913 a month compared with 504 a month the previous financial year. That was reflected in personal transaction accounts being the most complained about product overall, while transactions that customers considered unauthorised were the most common issue in complaints to AFCA in 2023-24.
“We saw scam-related complaints dip a little towards the end of the year, possibly reflecting recent government and industry efforts to prevent and address scams Our hope is that this improvement continues in the coming year. Clearer obligations will help us, as an ombudsman service, in resolving complaints about the way a financial firm has handled the fallout from a scam.”
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
A 21 per cent surge in complaints about comprehensive motor vehicle insurance meant it overtook home building cover as the most complained about insurance product in 2023-24. Claim delays accounted for a third of these vehicle insurance complaints, and delay in claim handling remained the top issue in general insurance overall.
Note: AFCA’s full set of data will be available in the Annual Review later this year. The data provided in this Media Release is preliminary and some numbers may change after further analysis and classification.